Ep.290- INCREASE Revenue From CURRENT CUSTOMERS! (Quick Tips)➕Shocking NEWS!🤦‍♂️| Jay’s SCOOP

14 Mar 2025 · 14 min

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In short

Podcast Notes: Do This, NOT That: Marketing Tips with Jay Schwedelson

Episode Title

Ep.290 - INCREASE Revenue From CURRENT CUSTOMERS! (Quick Tips)➕Shocking NEWS!🤦‍♂️

Episode Overview In this episode, Jay Schwedelson discusses the importance of customer retention over acquisition, emphasizing that retaining existing customers is significantly more cost-effective and profitable. He provides actionable tactics to enhance customer engagement and drive sustained growth.

Key Concepts

  • Customer Retention vs. Acquisition:
  • Acquiring new customers can cost up to 25 times more than retaining existing ones (Harvard Business Review).
  • A mere 5% increase in retention can lead to a 25% to 95% increase in profits (Bain & Company).
  • Focused strategies on existing customers can yield better returns than the chase for new clients.

Actionable Tactics

  1. Direct Messaging to Top Customers:
  2. Personal direct messages can significantly enhance customer connection.
  3. Example message: "Hey [Name], thanks for being a loyal customer! I’d love to check in and see how you're doing."
  1. Automated Personalized Check-Ins:
  2. Implement quarterly check-ins via email that feel personal and are signed by key team members.
  3. Use a conversational subject line like "Check in, how goes it?"
  1. Power User Panels:
  2. Create an exclusive group for the top 5% of your customers to provide feedback and insights.
  3. These panels can conduct meetings via Slack or Zoom to discuss future products and engage customers.
  1. Private Communities:
  2. Build small, dedicated communities for long-term users to foster engagement and loyalty.
  1. Founders-Only Email Series:
  2. Send curated content directly from the founders to loyal customers to create a personal connection.
  1. SMS Updates for Top Customers:
  2. Offer text message updates exclusively for the top 5% of customers to keep them informed and engaged.
  1. "Hand Holding" Strategy:
  2. Engage a select group of 20 contacts every 90 days through one-on-one communication to strengthen relationships.

Statistics Highlighted

  • Customer retention tactics can greatly influence profitability and engagement.
  • Direct engagement strategies lead to better customer relationships and increased loyalty.

Personal Anecdote

  • Jay shares a personal experience regarding trying weight loss medication, using it to illustrate the importance of authenticity in communication.

Notable Quotes

  • "The grass isn't greener on the other side. It's greener where you water it." – Neil Barringham
  • "Getting 10 clients in one year is easy, but keeping one client for 10 years is incredible."

Closing Remarks

  • Jay invites listeners to consider one actionable step they can take in the upcoming week to strengthen their relationships with existing customers.
  • The episode concludes with promotional mentions of upcoming virtual marketing events and the importance of staying connected with the audience.

Additional Resources

  • Marigold's Consumer Trends Index: A free resource providing insights into consumer engagement trends, available at [meetmarigold.com/guru](https://meetmarigold.com/guru).
  • Event Registration: Listeners are encouraged to join the free virtual event at [Eventastic.com](https://eventastic.com/).

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This detailed structure captures the essence of the podcast episode while providing clear insights and action points for marketers looking to improve customer retention.

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Transcript

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0:08Welcome to Do This Not That, the podcast for marketers. You'll walk away from each episode with actionable tips you can test immediately. You'll hear from the best minds in marketing who will share tactics, quick wins, and pitfalls to avoid. We'll also dig into life, pop culture, and the chaos that is our everyday. I'm Jay Schwetelson. Let's do this, not that.

0:40we are back for do this not that podcast presented by marigold and today we're talking about my favorite people no not you although you're not bad it is existing customers those are the greatest people for your business for your brand doesn't matter if you're a business marketer or a consumer marketer we need to focus more on our existing customers and i want to share some very specific tactics and test ideas on how you can get more out of your existing customers and why we should be focusing in on them. You know, in my own agency, we cut out prospecting outreach by about 90 % because I realized we were doing a terrible job of taking care of our current customers.

1:21All right. There's this quote by this guy, Neil Barringham that I love, and it's the grass isn't greener on the other side. It's greener where you water it. And that That is a fact. When you focus on your existing customers and you're watering your own grass, instead of running around looking for greener pastures all the time, new customers all the time, that is how you crush it. So before I get into the tactics, there are some stats that kind of blew my mind as it relates to focusing in on your existing customers. So this one came from Harvard Business Review. Acquiring a new customer can cost up to 25 times more than keeping an existing one.

2:00Or how about this one from Bain & Company? Just a 5 % increase in retention can boost profits by 25 % to 95%. Okay? Retention is the ultimate growth hack. It is. So let's get into some specific tactics that you can do, right, to increase the retention. That is the game. How do we get our current customers? I don't care how big your business is. how small your business is if you're a consumer brand or a business brand how do we make our current customers feel like they are super important to us and how do we get more from them all right this first one this first tactic you're gonna say there's no way i can do that i don't have the time but you do have the time okay someone on your team has the time and this works incredibly well this is dming direct messaging your best customers as if it's coming from like a friend, not just coming from your brand.

2:55It's actually coming from you or one of the leaders in your organization. Even if it's coming via the brand account, you are sending them direct messages on LinkedIn, on Instagram, and you're doing this to your top customers. You could take a thousand of your top customers and you could DM them and you could say something like this, hey Dave, just wanted to say thanks for checking out all of our latest products and our latest stuff. You're such a loyal customer. I want to check in with you, make sure all things are good, that you're happy, whatever. This crushed it. This might take you two hours to message out to a thousand people or someone on your team, but those thousand people are going to feel connected to you.

3:34I mean, think about this podcast, for example. What if I messaged you and said, Hey, Jen, I just want to say thanks for checking out the podcast. Any thoughts on new episode ideas or any other shows you think I should check out that you listen to? And then you put this in, and this is really important. This is actually me sending this. No mass spam garbage. Hope you reply, Jay. And I send that message out, which I do, by the way. And it gets me to be able to be connected with people. You do this from your brand account. I don't care if you're a direct to consumer marketer. I don't care if you're selling a boring B2B SaaS platform.

4:08You send this to your thousand top customers. This crushes it. All right. What other things can you do? If you think you don't have the time for that, you at least, you at least have to automate a personalized check-in quarterly, okay, with your top customers. A personalized check-in quarterly. And this should be in a letter format email from one of the most well-known people in your organization or the person that closed the deal that they care about. And at least quarterly, a note has to go out that is letter format that doesn't look like it was done in some Canva template or some template from your email sending platform.

4:44And the subject line should be something like, check in, how goes it? And you go, hey, Steve, I noticed you've been using whatever product or service for a while, and we really appreciate you. Any feedback on things we can improve? Hit reply. I actually read these, right? And you make sure that you can actually get those replies. While it's automated, it feels human. Okay, now let's get into other stuff besides for DMs and emails. I love this one. Create a power user panel. Okay, what does that mean? People love influencing the brands that they buy from. They absolutely love it. If you invite the top 5 % of your customers to a private Slack, or maybe it's a Zoom call, right?

5:28And you have them come on and you're sharing the roadmap for the quarter ahead or the year ahead, some new products that you're going to be launching, whatever it may be, and you invite them to be part of this, this top 5 % power user panel, that is gold. And these people feel connected forever. How about other ones? Let's rattle off a bunch. What if you just created a private community for long-term users? Forget about trying to build a community for a zillion people. Make it small for your super users, for your super clients. You can make a community on any platform. You You can do a Slack community.

6:03It's easy. How about a special email series from the founders of your company, right? And it's the Only for Our Peeps series. And here are hand-picked bundles that I personally love. So the founder is sending out, these are the things that I personally love that I want to get to you. You're our super-duper friends, right? You feel connected to the founder of that, puts a face on the brand that you are promoting. We all are talking about doing more SMS and text, but don't do it for everybody. have a text thing only for your favorite customers, only for your top 5 % customers, where they could sign up and get text updates and SMS updates.

6:43And you label it as such. You make sure that they understand that it's only for our top 5%, whatever it may be. And the last one is something that my organization has been doing for a while. It's something I call hand-holding. And this literally has changed my business. And again, it doesn't matter if you are Kim Kardashian running Skims. It doesn't matter if you are the CEO of Microsoft. It doesn't matter if you're a five-person organization. If you're a coach and you have a health coaching business, it doesn't matter how big or small you are. We do this thing called hand-holding, which is myself included and a handful of my top people in my company.

7:22Every 90 days, we switch over 20 new contacts that we're handholding. What does that mean? So I get 20 contacts of existing customers and people that we are working with. And for those 90 days, I am reaching out to them directly. I'm emailing them, I'm DMing them on LinkedIn. I'm sending them interesting thought leadership stuff. I am sending them one-to-one communications for 90 days to these 20 people, besides for my regular job. And then every 90 days, I get a new 20 people to do this with. and what it has done for my business has been wild, okay? Because these 90 people feel so connected to me and to my business.

8:03If you do nothing else and you do a rotation every 90 days, 20 contacts, which you can totally do, it is a total game changer. So there's this cheesy saying that I made up that getting 10 clients in one year is easy, but keeping one client for 10 years is incredible. And that's what it's all about. So the question I'd ask you is, what is the one thing you're going to be able to do next week to make your existing customers feel that love? All right. Before we get into the since you didn't ask, which is the ridiculous portion of this podcast, I want to let you know that this podcast is presented by Marigold.

8:38Listen, Marigold is an incredible email sending platform, and I am loyal to them. But they have something that you need to check out that actually really speaks to the whole topic of today, which is their new consumer trends index. This thing is free. This thing is ungated. They surveyed 21 ,700 people about why they feel connected to a brand. Why do they spend more with a brand? Why do they stick with that brand? And they released all the data and you can get it at meetmarigold.com slash CTI. This is the Consumer Trends Index. It just came out. It is free. There's no form. It's ungated. That's at meetmarigold.com slash CTI.

9:16Check that out. All right. Since you didn't ask, well, wow, this podcast got me to some serious trouble. I'm going to tell you why. So the other day I'm talking to my wife about one of the podcast episodes I did. And I mentioned to my wife that I was talking about Ozempic and Wagovi and semaglutides and whatever. And I don't remember even what I was talking about it. And then she said to me, you know, why don't you go on one of those? And I said, what are you talking about. And I had no good excuse. I'm probably, I probably could lose 10 pounds. Okay. That's probably where I'm at. I've always been that way.

9:5310 pounds probably I should lose whatever. And I don't go on a lot of these fad diets, whatever she goes, well, why don't you go on one of those and give it a shot. And I was like, Oh my God. And here I am on this podcast and I try to keep it real. I really do. I try to be very real, share what's going on in my life because that's what's going on. And you know what? I went on one of these things. So now I'm on one of these semaglutides. I started taking it. Okay. And I'm like, well, I'm not going to talk about that on my podcast because that's like weird, embarrassing. I don't know what, but then if I actually do end up losing weight or whatever, and then I'm lying, that's not cool.

10:27So I'm being real. So here it is. I started this thing nine days ago. You stick a shot in yourself, this little shot, uh, once a week, and I'm going to continue to update everybody on how it's going. okay i have lost one pound so far all right so we're on our way and what is my take on this and by the way i know for some people it's expensive other people get discounts on it whatever okay you do you um uh so how's it going for me i honestly this is not a commercial for it but i i've had no side effects yay meaning um they say sometimes you get nauseous whatever that hasn't happened to me whatever i also don't feel like i'm not eating as much i still think i'm doing the same thing.

11:11So I don't know if this one pound is actually as a result of what's going on. Um, and I know it's good for lots of other stuff, which is the other reason I'm taking it because apparently it like helps out all these other health things. I have no idea. This whole thing might be a total stupid idea. And I'm a big loser. Like, you know, do taking one of these things, like all these, uh, nerds that are out there running around doing it, but you know what? I don't care. I'm going to try it out. Meanwhile, they'll probably find out in five years that it causes me to turn into like some sort of strange robot or I have no idea.

11:45But here I am trying to keep it real. So I'm taking this thing. I'm on. I just took shot number two. So far, so good. I'm going to check back in a few weeks. I will let you know how it's going. I am not here recommending you do this. I'm not here not recommending you do this. I have no recommendation whatsoever. The only recommendation is don't go home and tell your wife that you're talking about this you want to take it but the funny part is my my kids and my wife think i'm an idiot because i walk around my house in the last nine days and i say to everybody hey do i look hot you know like aren't i like jack now don't i look cool because i'm like so skinny and whatever and they're like you're an idiot that's not funny i think i've said that joke i mean easily every day at least once a day i go oh my god i'm so hot now now that i'm on one of these things so meanwhile i'm my jokes are getting worse.

12:35That's the only output, the only outcome of this whole thing. So that's the update. Wow. You weren't expecting that. Neither was I. Listen, we literally have only a few hundred spots left for our giant free virtual event, Eventastic. This is the world's largest event about all things events, in-person events, consumer events, business events, virtual events, webinars, public speaking, Eventastic.com. Okay. It's free. It's virtual. We will run out of our virtual seats because we only bought so many. You got to register, Check it out. And thanks for being here. Later. You did it. You made it to the end.

13:09Nice. But the party's not over. Subscribe to make sure you get the latest episode each week for more actionable tips and a little chaos from today's top marketers. And hook us up with a five-star review if this wasn't the worst podcast of all time. Lastly, if you want access to the best virtual marketing events that are also 100 % free, visit guru events.com so you can hear from the world's top marketers like Damon John Martha Stewart and me guru events.com check it out

From the publisher

In this episode of Do This, Not That, host Jay Schwedelson emphasizes that retaining customers is far more cost-effective and profitable than acquiring new ones. He shares actionable tactics to improve customer retention—from personal direct messages to creating exclusive power user panels—all designed to deepen engagement and drive sustained growth.

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Best Moments:

(00:40) Introduction to the topic of focusing on existing customers

(01:50) Eye-opening statistics on customer retention and its impact on profits

(02:38) Tactic 1: Direct messaging top customers personally

(04:13) Tactic 2: Automated, personalized quarterly check-ins

(05:11) Tactic 3: Creating a power user panel for the top 5% of customers

(05:46) Additional tactics: private communities, special email series, and SMS updates

(06:56) The "hand holding" strategy for personal customer engagement

(08:30) Introduction to Marigold's Consumer Trends Index

(09:18) Personal anecdote about trying weight loss medication

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Check out our FREE + VIRTUAL EVENTS! -> 

EVENTASTIC.com

GuruConference.com

DeliveredConference.com

=================================================================


MASSIVE thank you to our Sponsor, Marigold!!


Looking to master consumer engagement in 2025? The 2025 Consumer Trends Index from Marigold reveals how AI, economic pressures, and personalized marketing are shaping consumer expectations. Uncover data-driven insights to foster stronger brand relationships, strike the right balance between personalization and privacy, and turn casual customers into loyal advocates.

Download the 2025 Consumer Trends Index today at meetmarigold.com/guru and stay one step ahead of evolving consumer demands!

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Ep.290- INCREASE Revenue From CURRENT CUSTOMERS! (Quick Tips)➕Shocking NEWS!🤦‍♂️| Jay’s SCOOPDo This, NOT That: Marketing Tips with Jay Schwedelson · 14 min
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